J.V. National Championships...

New at the Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational!
To better serve the needs of California High School Cross Country, the Reebok/Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational is proud to announce the creation of the first ever National Junior Varsity Cross Country Championships as part of the 2007 event! In recent years California has produced some of the finest varsity cross country teams in the nation but it has also produced an incredible number of super-strong Junior Varsity teams.  Many of these Junior Varsity teams are not only better than any other JV teams in the country, but arguably better than most varsity teams in other states.

In recent years the importance of the Junior Varsity Division at the Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational has purposely been downplayed in terms of both status and awards in order to provide equitable competition for Varsity and Junior Varsity Teams. Our new plan will bring a tremendous amount of prestige to the Junior Varsity Division—a plan that will make these races very special and give these athletes a place in the spotlight.   

The new National Junior Varsity Championship plan:

• There will be six scoring National Junior Varsity Championship races

• Each race will have a minimum of 20 teams of 7 runners each (any grade level as long as they are your number 8th through 14th best runners)
• The winners of these races will be crowned “National Junior Varsity Cross Country Champions” and their coaches as the “National Junior Varsity Coach of the Year”.
• The top three teams in each of these Junior Varsity National Championship races will receive team plaques.
• The top seven individuals on each of the top three teams will also receive medals.
• The top 15 individuals in each race will also receive medals.

Criteria for selection into the three very special National Junior Varsity Championship races:

• Any school accepted into the “Varsity Team Sweepstakes” race in its division will automatically be given a spot in the Junior Varsity National Championship race in their school’s division.
  
• If there are remaining spots in the field in any one of the three divisions, the next JV teams to be considered will be schools which requested to run in a “Varsity Team Sweepstakes” race but were not chosen and were placed in a top level regular varsity race by the seeding committee.
  
• If there still are spots available after criteria 1 and 2 have been followed, schools will be placed into the competition by their CIF divisional ranking.   No matter how high a team is ranked, if its varsity team does not request to run in the “Varsity Team Sweepstakes” race, its JV team will only be considered if 20 teams are not selected using the first two criteria.

The open Junior Varsity Races:
In order to ensure that every coach who feels his or her other junior varsity runners (juniors/seniors only) need an opportunity to run on the Mt. SAC course, we will offer a special “Open” Junior Varsity Race at the end of the schedule on Friday afternoon for D III, IV and V schools, one at the beginning of the day on Saturday for D I schools, and one at the end of the schedule on Saturday for Division II schools. These races are for those teams who did not qualify into the J.V. National Championship Races.

There will be no team scoring in the “Open JV” races, no individual medals awarded and no entry fee charged for the “Open” JV Races.

IMPORTANT!  Athletes who want to run in these “Open” JV races must still be officially registered online for the meet in order to receive an official bib and receive a finish time.  Boys and girls will start eight minutes apart and the new “Safety Gate” will be enforced.

Confirmations for those who have been selected to participate in the National Junior Varsity Championship races will be on OCTOBER 15, 2007 (same day as all other H.S. confirmations) 

Additional competitions on the Mt. SAC Course:
We would also like to remind coaches there are two other invitationals held on the Mt. SAC course during the year which are open to all competitors (the Fastback Invitational on September 8 and the San Gabriel Valley Invitational on October 8). Both meets allow unlimited junior varsity division entries and are open to all schools.

Questions, comments or suggestions:
As always, the number one goal of the Mt. SAC Cross Country Invitational is to offer a great competitive experience for the athlete, coach and spectator. If you have any comments or suggestions, please feel free to share them with our meet director, Tim O’Rourke via email at: torourke@emuhsd.k12.ca.us

Contact us for more info